sdp gateway ending dilemma

istanbul_2

hope somebody can give me some advice on this, we are a couple who are disabled and are waiting for an adapted property or bungalow. we have to bid every week in the hope of finding a suitable property to live in. our question is  now that sdp gateway has closed does that mean we will have to go on uc if we moved home. we are left in a predicament on do we make ourselves worse off by moving or have to stay where we are so we don't lose out financially?

poppy12345

istanbul_2 said:

hope somebody can give me some advice on this, we are a couple who are disabled and are waiting for an adapted property or bungalow. we have to bid every week in the hope of finding a suitable property to live in. our question is  now that sdp gateway has closed does that mean we will have to go on uc if we moved home. we are left in a predicament on do we make ourselves worse off by moving or have to stay where we are so we don't lose out financially?

If you need to claim for help with any rent and you stay within the same local council then you can claim housing benefit when you move and your existing benefits will stay as they are.

If you move to a different local council then you won't be able to claim housing benefit and you'll need to claim UC. Your existing award for ESA will be honoured in UC so if you're in the Support Group you'll be placed into the LCWRA group. You will receive a transitional protection amount in with your UC amount, how much this will be will depend on which group you're currently in for ESA.

istanbul_2

thanks for the quick reply poppy. so my understanding now is as long as we stay with the same local council the dwp can't force me to go on uc.  one little question sorry to be a pain , does it make any difference if the property is  in my same local council is owned by a different housing association from another district . ie . we are under liverpool council and there are housing associations in bootle which is under sefton council.

calcotti

istanbul_2 said:

thanks for the quick reply poppy. so my understanding now is as long as we stay with the same local council the dwp can't force me to go on uc.  one little question sorry to be a pain , does it make any difference if the property is  in my same local council is owned by a different housing association from another district . ie . we are under liverpool council and there are housing associations in bootle which is under sefton council.

It doesn’t matter who your landlord is, Council, HA or private. What matters is that your Housing Benefit (which I assume you currently get) will still be paid by the same council. This means that they simply amend your existing HB claim to take account of your new rent.

poppy12345

istanbul_2 said:

we are under liverpool council and there are housing associations in bootle which is under sefton council.

That's 2 different local councils so this would mean you won't be able to reclaim HB and you would need to claim UC.

calcotti

istanbul_2 said:...as long as we stay with the same local council the dwp can't force me to go on uc.  ... if the property is  in my same local council is owned by a different housing association from another district . ie . we are under liverpool council and there are housing associations in bootle which is under sefton council.

Can we just check what you are telling us as it is not completely clear. Are you saying
1) that the properties are located in the same local authority but the Housing Associations are based in different  authorities (which doesn’t matter), or
2) that the properties are located in different authorities (which does matter).

I interpreted your post to mean 1), poppy has interpreted it as as 2)

The DWP will not force you onto UC. Housing Benefit is claimed from the local authority. If you move within a local authority your Housing Benefit can be revised. If you move to a new authority your existing Housing Benefit claim ends and you cannot make a new claim from the new local authority. It is then your choice to either stay on your remaining benefits and receive no help with your rent or to apply for UC in order to get help with rent. If you do the latter then your income based ESA will end.

poppy12345

I googled both Liverpool and sefton councils and they are different authorites.

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

I googled both Liverpool and sefton councils and they are different authorites.

Obviously. You have interpreted OP as meaning the properties are in different authorities but I think OP is saying the properties are in the same authority but owned by different landlords based on different authorities.

istanbul_2 said: .. if the property is  in my same local council is owned by a different housing association from another district .

istanbul_2

sorry for the confusion. the best way of me putting it is we are on propertypool and we have to bid each week in the hope of getting what we need, it covers the merseyside area , so there are at least 5 different housing associations covering a vast area.  example one vision housing have homes in the liverpool area but they are based under sefton council which is different to liverpool city council so even tho the house is in liverpool district the offices are under sefton council which confuses me on the matter , i get housing benefit which is paid to liverpool city council . so the question i was asking was if the house comes under liverpool and it was say owned by one vision(sefton council) does that change my situation on hb payment as it would be going to one vision (sefton council)?

Alice_Holt

https://medium.com/adviser/closing-the-sdp-gateway-2763adf273fe
"To protect their entitlement, clients should make it clear that they wish to receive the SDP element [included in their UC claim], by adding a note to their journal or calling the UC helpline. If the element is not awarded, this is an appealable decision."

May be of interest to the OP, if the new property is in a different council area.

istanbul_2

Alice_Holt said:

https://medium.com/adviser/closing-the-sdp-gateway-2763adf273fe

thanks alice . this is saying if i move house that it will trigger change of circumstances and possibly have to go on uc?